


Realization

by flowing_river



Series: Civil War Team Iron Man Fix-It [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Civil War Team Iron Man, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gaslighting, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Not Clint Friendly, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Past Abuse, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Siberia Scene in Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Salt, Toxic Team, Whump, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24765859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowing_river/pseuds/flowing_river
Summary: Following the events in Siberia, Tony is finally rescued and later has a chat with Rhodey in the hospital and realizes a few things about everything that happened in the Civil War.
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Series: Civil War Team Iron Man Fix-It [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794685
Comments: 130
Kudos: 834
Collections: Post-Civil War Media Fallout (Team Iron Man), Tony Stark deserves more





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first MCU fic so I hope I got the characters right and this is a Team Iron Man fic, so don't read if that's not your thing.

It’s been almost an hour since Steve left him behind in Siberia. The arc reactor had flickered out a few minutes after he had left and since then he had been stuck in his suit, leaning against the wall and unable to move.

Tony curses at Steve once again for leaving him in _Siberia_ of all places. He could have at least chosen a warm beach or something, so that he wouldn’t die of hypothermia. Or maybe from his crushed chest, whatever came first.

He knows that FRIDAY must have already sent out a distress signal, but who would come to answer it? Rhodey is in the hospital, the Avengers besides Steve and Barnes are in the Raft, and he knows there was no way Ross would care to find him.

_He’s probably glad I’m out of the way, that bastard._

He’s dealt with having to put up with people like Ross before, but he never enjoyed it. As soon as Ross had approached him for the first time, he had set FRIDAY on digging up everything on him. She had found quite a lot, but Tony had told her to keep digging until she found something to send him away for good.

So Tony knows he’s screwed. His only hope at this point is Vision, but he’s not sure whether FRIDAY managed to reach him before her connection was cut off.

He has no choice but to sit here and hope someone shows up. And hope his cursed luck doesn’t show up and have _Hydra_ show up. Tony almost shivers at the thought of them having their hands on his suit and _him._

He knows there are cameras in here, he saw them as soon as he entered and now he regrets not shutting them down. He wanted to have some video evidence just in case things went spectacularly wrong, which they did, but now it just means Hydra could be watching him.

Tony just hopes that luck will be on his side for once and someone shows up for him.

* * *

It takes almost 2 days to Vision to show up with a medical team. By then, Tony’s hands, feet, and face have gone numb, most likely from frostbite. He’s still taking shallow breaths because he feels like the slightest shift in his chest will cause his likely broken sternum to get worse.

The medical team straps him down and take him to a hospital in Germany. There he goes through several surgeries to replace his artificial sternum which had been completely destroyed along with several of his ribs. His arm had to be set after the break from the airport fight was made worse and he had to be treated for some frostbite and severe hypothermia.

Thankfully, the frostbite didn’t have much permanent damage except that his nose would always be numb and have scars. His hands and feet looked pretty nasty, but the doctors reassured him that they would heal up.

He’s on bedrest, but the doctors agreed to let him get transferred to hospital Rhodey was being treated in. He’s put in a room with Rhodey who still hasn’t woken up. The doctors had already told him that Rhodey would never walk again without some kind of support and that had almost brought Tony to tears.

But despite everything that happened in the past few days, he hadn’t shed a single tear. Every time he thought about it, his fathers words rang through his mind.

_Stark men are made of iron. Stark men don’t cry._

He doesn’t want to follow any “advice” his father gave him, but this particular lesson had been carved into him with lots of pain and he couldn’t let it go.

Pepper and Vision would come by everyday to see both of them and give him updates about everything going on. Pepper told him she was holding back the press as best as possible, but it wouldn’t last long. She needed to know what he wanted to tell the public.

And that is what is currently plaguing Tony’s mind. Does he throw the “Rogue Avengers” (what the media was calling them) to the wolves or clean up their messes as usual.

A part of him wants to help them _so badly_ , but another part of him still remembers their cruel words. Clint mocking Rhodey’s injuries at the Raft, Natasha making digs at his “ego”, and of course Steve beating him down in Siberia.

_He’s my friend._

_So was I._

His thoughts are interrupted by the groan coming from the bed beside him. He turns to see Rhodey stirring. It takes him a few seconds to fully wake up and look around the room.

“Tony? What happened? And how the hell did they get you to lay on a hospital bed?”

Tony cracked a smile at the joke. It was true that he usually escaped the hospital after a few hours, but he physically couldn’t right now.

“Tony?”

“You have a spine injury,” Tony finally says, “The doctors say you won’t walk again without some sort of support.”

There’s some silence at that. Tony chances a look over at Rhodey and he can see the pain on his face. He couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for Rhodey. After a few minutes Rhodey says,

“And what happened to you?”

Tony sighs. He should just make a joke and laugh it off, but he doesn’t. After all, he’s been doing that this whole time and things ended in a disaster. And he trusts Rhodey always, more than anyone else. So Tony tells him everything that he didn’t tell Pepper or Vision. Rhodey stays silent while he tells the story.

“That asshole,” Rhodey says when he’s done, “I’m going to kick his ass.”

Tony’s eyes flicker to Rhodey’s legs.

“My arms still work perfectly fine, I can still punch him,” Rhodey says noticing where he’s looking at.

“You would break your hand,” Tony says.

“I’ll use the suit. You may have held back, but I won’t.”

They both know if Tony truly wanted Steve and Barnes dead, they would be.

“So what are you going to do about them?” Rhodey asks after a few minutes.

“I-”

“You’re not thinking of covering for them, are you?” Rhodey asks.

Tony turns his head away.

“After everything they did to you?” Rhodey asks incredulously, “You still want to help them? After Rogers lied to you for so many years? Used your money and resources to find your parents murderer? And almost killed you after you found out?”

“I punched him first. And he was trying to defend his friend. I mean he’s Captain America and I’m the Merchant of Death.”

Rhodey looks at him, shocked, “What did he _do_ to you? You’re not the Merchant of Death, you’re Tony Stark and Iron Man. He lied to you for _years_ , he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness. Your better than him. He’s scared of accountability and the accords because he knew that everyone would find out that he was secretly looking for Barnes using your resources which you _trusted him with_. And if that wasn’t bad enough I find out he’s been gaslighting you?”

“Gaslighting me? What are you going on about Platypus?” Tony says trying for a joking tone.

“Your first thought after he fucked everything up was to blame yourself. You called yourself the Merchant of Death. He’s been blaming you for things out of your control, hasn’t he? Using your past against you? Making you feel like you have to fix everyone’s equipment and gear? Pay for everything despite them all having jobs except for Maximoff? Feel like you owe them for everything?” Rhodey asks him.

And that seemed to put everything in a new perspective. He hadn’t even realized how they all treated him like dirt on the bottom of their shoes. How _hard_ he tried to impress them, and they blamed him for that too. It was either _stop throwing your money around, Stark,_ or _why haven’t you finished fixing my gear? You have plenty of money and time. Your father spoiled you too much._

He hadn’t even _noticed_ how bad things had gotten, he had been too busy working and building things and cleaning up their messes to try and make them accept him as a part of the team. But they never looked past the “Iron Mac yes, Tony Stark not recommended.”

“How did you know all that?” Tony finally says looking back at Rhodey.

“Bain,” is all he says, and Tony understands. He never realized how much the avengers reminded him of his past abusive relationship with Sunset.

“So what should I do now?” Tony asks after a minute.

“Burn them down. Show them what a big mistake messing with Tony Stark is,” Rhodey says with a gleeful smile.

* * *

Tony sets up a press conference right after he’s released from the hospital. He doesn’t hide the frostbite on his face and hands and wears a low cut shirt to show the bandages on his torso. He leaves the sling for his broken arm on and doesn’t put up his usual mask to hide his pain and emotions. And he tells the press everything.

He makes sure to let his words break at moments, to stop and let his eyes get watery. He tells everyone he’s going to release the footage of what happened in Siberia, the video of his parents murder, and his medical records for all the injuries he received. He also tells him Iron Man will be out of commission for a while until he can heal.

And then he sits back and enjoys the show. At first some people are skeptical that _Captain America_ would do such terrible things but then an investigation into everything that happened backs up everything Tony says, including the authenticity of the videos. And then the media goes insane.

Immediately everyone is condemning the Rogue’s actions including the military entirely distancing themselves from Rogers.

#TeamIronMan is trending along with #ArrestTheRogues. Tony is in disbelief at first for all the support he’s been receiving, he thought he would have to do a bit more revealing before it happened, but he didn’t realize how much people loved Iron Man. When he had said that to Rhodey, he had given him a sad smile.

He decides to do some interviews and tells everyone how hard he tried to keep everything together and compromise and how much the betrayal _hurt._ He even brought up how it reminded him of Obie’s betrayal all over again (even though he did not want to touch that subject with a 100 foot pole).

And that causes even more protest on his behalf even though he hasn’t even revealed how badly he had been treated by all the Rogues.

Tony starts actually relaxing after a month passes, for the first time in _years._ He can actually take time for himself to heal properly and work on everything he’s been putting off for so long. He also designs some leg braces for Rhodey (with some medical advice from his doctors) and works on more updates in his suit and a better chest piece because of how fragile his chest is now.

Then a letter shows up. Tony assumes either it’s old (written while he was still in the hospital) or Rogers has been sticking his head in the sand because otherwise he would have demanded that Tony fix how the media has turned against him.

After he’s done reading he almost starts laughing. He looks through the box and finds the flip phone Rogers sent him which makes him laugh even more. He knows the Rogues are hiding in Wakanda and Rogers has access to way better than a flip phone.

It takes him a few minutes to stop laughing and put a hand on his aching chest. Rhodey is looking at him slightly concerned from the wheelchair he’s sitting in.

“What was that all about?” Rhodey asks.

Tony silently hands over the letter and lets him read it. When he’s done, Rhodey looks up with a look of anger.

“What is this bullshit? Is this suppose to be an apology because I can’t tell if it is,” he practically yells.

Tony still remembers the days where this would have been more than enough to please him and to have brought him back to doing Rogers every bidding. But thanks to some help from his therapist and Dr. Strange (who removed some influence Maximoff had left in his mind) he is not going to accept this kind of treatment anymore.

“I needed a good laugh today,” Tony says, “What do you think I should do, burn the letter and phone or give them to Dum-E to play with?”

Rhodey laughs, “I would have said use the phone for parts, but I doubt you would even touch such ancient technology.”

Tony laughs again, “Hey maybe I should give it to the spider kid, he likes using this sort of stuff. And there’s no point in wasting time burning the letter, I’ll just throw it away.”

Tony starts to crumble it up, but then gets an idea. He pulls out his phone, takes a picture and posts it online. He already knows what the headlines will be tomorrow. Then he crumbles up the letter and throws it away. Pepper and Happy are coming over soon and he has some quality time he needs to spend with the 3 of them.

* * *

Months slowly pass and things get better. Tony works on his company, the Accords, and improving defenses for Earth as he’s warned that another threat is coming.

He stops thinking about the Rogues after they fade away from the news and media and eventually the letters Rogers keep sending him (which he throws away without even opening) stop coming too. He assembles another team that’s better and stronger and they all appreciate him and are truly his friends.

When Thanos comes, they’re all ready and they defeat him before he can even try snapping his fingers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the letters Rogers sent Tony (that Tony threw away unopened)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since some of you wanted to see these, I decided to write them...

**Shortly after the Siberia press conference**

_Tony-_

_How come you never replied to my letter? I sent you an apology, it’s only fair you do so in return. But no matter now, you can reply to this one. I_

_saw the press conference you_ _did a few days ago. Everyone was pretty upset after learning about what happened in Siberia, but they understood_

 _you were in the wrong after I explained that you_ _overexaggerated about what happened and that I didn’t injure you, only disabled your suit. We_

 _haven’t watched the video of course because we know you must have made a_ _fake one._

_I know you must feel embarrassed realizing you were wrong about everything that happened, but that’s no excuse for lying to the public like_

_that. You should take responsibility_ _for your actions instead of turning everyone against us. Let go of your ego for once and get rid of the_

 _Accords so we can come home. Clint’s pretty upset that you’ve been_ _keeping him from his family, and I think Scott is as well. We all miss the_

_compound so let go of your ego and stop lying to the public so we can all come home._

_Your Friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

* * *

**Right after the press conference announcing the New Avengers’ Members**

_Tony-_

_This is taking things too far. Let go of your ego for once and stop playing these games with the public. You need us and these “new members”_

_won’t be able to replace us. We_ _don’t even know who these people are. You need to do things the proper way. You need to get rid of the_

 _Accords, bring us home, and then as team leader I could approve_ _whether or not we need these people._

_What were you thinking putting whoever this Dr. Strange person on the team? We already have Wanda as a magic user. And we have Scott as Ant_

_Man, we don’t need this Hope_ _person either. Who even is this “Captain Marvel”? I can’t be replaced and especially not by her. Good thing you_

 _didn’t get rid of Vision. And what’s the point of having you and_ _Rhodes on the same team? You both do the same thing. I’m glad you had sense_

_to keep the spider person off the team though, he clearly has been misguided by you._

_How’s Thor doing? You should have kept him nearby instead of sending him to Norway, you have more than enough space to host him._

_And what were you thinking having Loki_ _as backup. He’s evil and tried to kill us. Don’t make up excuses that he was “mind controlled” with the_

_specter. That’s disrespectful to Clint, he was quite upset after seeing that._

_And ruining our home? That’s the last straw. You have plenty of money, you could have made a new training facility instead of destroying our_

_home just for a petty grudge. And_ _how come you aren’t housing these people? That’s your responsibility. Clearly everything is falling apart_

 _without us, but it’s okay too ask for help Tony. Just fix everything and_ _call. We’ll be there._

_Your friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

* * *

**After the interview where Tony mentions Wanda had been influencing his mind**

_Tony **-**_

__

_Enough is enough. I know you want the public to be sympathetic towards you, but that’s no excuse for blaming Wanda. She’s just a kid and she_

_would never influence your mind_ _on purpose. This is taking things too far. Wanda’s been so upset about everything the public is saying about_

 _her, so you need to go and tell the public the truth and apologize to_ _her. She’s part of your team, your family._

_Your Friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

* * *

**After the interview where Tony mentions he throws away Rogers’ letters unopened**

_Tony-_

_I watched that interview today where you said you don’t read my letters. This is just being petty now. You have to let go of your ego so we can_

_help you. Your “new team” is_ _nowhere as good as us, I saw you were injured in the fight last week. We could have prevented that. This is your_

 _last chance to respond Tony because I won’t send any more_ _letters after this._

_Your Friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

* * *

**After Thanos is defeated**

_Tony-_

_I knew I said I wouldn’t write again, but I saw the news about the alien invasion. Why didn’t you call us? We defeated Loki and the aliens in New_

_York, and we could have done it_ _again, as a team. And now you’re working with aliens? Whoever these “Guardians of the Galaxy” are, they clearly_

 _can’t be trusted. And of course you can’t trust Loki either. You_ _need us Tony, and this clearly showed that. It took so many people for you to_

 _defeat one alien. And clearly this Captain Marvel is not an effective team leader. She just shows off_ _with a light show, Wanda can do much better_

_than her. You need us back, Tony, in case there’s another alien invasion._

_Your Friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

* * *

**A few months after Thanos**

_Tony-_

_I finally realized what’s wrong. That Dr. Strange along with Loki must be mind controlling you. That’s why you aren’t responding to my letters or_

_opening them. You’ve been_ _trying to protect us all along. You’ve made huge mistakes, but we’re willing to forgive you for them. Don’t worry, we’re_

 _coming to help you. Wanda will get rid of the mind_ _control and then you can kick everyone out and arrest the people taking advantage of_

_you. You’ll be back with your family again. We’ll be there soon._

_Your Friend,_

_Steve Rogers_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the New Avengers Team Tony puts together is: Hope van Dyne, The Vision, Tony Stark, James Rhodes, Carol Danvers (who is team leader), Stephen Strange (but his duties as Sorcerer Supreme come first)
> 
> Peter along with other enhanced Tony has found are in training and will stay as backup for now. Eventually several teams will be formed.
> 
> Loki and Thor stay in New Asgard, but are also backup. And Loki has been pardoned because he was being mind controlled by Thanos during the New York invasion
> 
> The Guardians of the Galaxy came to help deal with Thanos and now are back somewhere in the universe, but come to visit occasionally.
> 
> Pepper and Tony decide they're better off as friends.
> 
> Tony doesn't house the Avengers because they all have there own jobs and can pay for themselves. Vision, Rhodey, and Tony live together though, especially because Rhodey still needs some assistance sometimes.
> 
> And the ominous ending to the last letter- I can write a sequel dealing with that if y'all want...

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!!!
> 
> Edit: Should I post another chapter or two with those unopened letters that Rogers sent Tony?


End file.
